France Arrests Over 1,300 After Violent Protests As Unions Plan More Rallies

by Stefan J. Bos, Worthy News Europe Bureau Chief

PARIS (Worthy News) – French authorities said Sunday that more than 1,300 people had been arrested following violence-tainted nationwide protests over government policies, but trade unions and student groups warned of further rallies against President Emmanuel Macron’s administration.

The Interior Ministry reported that approximately 410,000 people participated in Saturday’s demonstrations, including 110,000 in Paris, with clashes, fires and looting reported in several cities.

Authorities said 53 members of the security forces were injured, while trade unions estimated nationwide turnout at around 800,000, significantly higher than the government’s figures.

The ministry’s provisional Sunday tally showed 1,314 arrests, along with 75 fire-related interventions and 24 businesses looted. The figures were considerably lower than during the previous weekend’s unrest, when 2,628 people were arrested.

Saturday’s demonstrations came amid mounting anger over wages, rising living costs, education, public services and restrictions on protests, as France prepares for presidential elections in 2027.

POLICE CLASHES

Authorities deployed 70,000 police officers and other security personnel nationwide in an effort to prevent a repeat of the widespread violence and looting seen on October 17.

Yet confrontations continued, with riot police using tear gas and water cannons during clashes in Paris and several other cities, including Marseille, Lyon, Toulouse and Nantes.

In Paris, where authorities changed the main demonstration’s route, the organized march remained largely peaceful before clashes erupted as protesters dispersed near the southeastern edge of the capital.

Interior Minister Laurent Nuñez blamed radical-left activists for much of the violence, while some demonstrators accused police of excessive force.

Two protesters suffered serious hand injuries in separate incidents in Toulouse and Clermont-Ferrand, authorities said. Officials confirmed that the injured man in Clermont-Ferrand had not lost any fingers, while a street medic said a 20-year-old protester in Toulouse had lost several fingers.

PROTEST RESTRICTIONS

Amid concerns about further violence, authorities imposed restrictions on demonstrations in parts of several cities, seeking to prevent confrontations in shopping districts and other sensitive locations.

Critics accused the authorities of undermining the right to demonstrate, while the government maintained that tougher security measures were necessary to protect residents, businesses and public property.

In Nantes, demonstrators broke through police lines despite officers using tear gas and a water cannon, according to witnesses.

Elsewhere, officers dispersed protesters with tear gas in Lyon, while clashes and attacks on businesses were also reported in Marseille.

However, Nuñez said the security operation had produced a more positive outcome than the previous weekend, with officers intervening earlier and preventing much of the widespread destruction seen on October 17.

MORE PROTESTS PLANNED

Trade unions and protest groups called Sunday for further demonstrations on October 31 and a nationwide strike on November 5.

Additionally, the Yellow Vests movement, which emerged during protests against fuel taxes and rising living costs in 2018, called for renewed demonstrations.

The SUD Education teaching union backed further action, with its Paris branch listing demonstrations on October 31 and a strike and protest on November 5.

“We see an aggregation of anger,” Murielle Guilbert, co-leader of the Solidaires trade union federation, told French broadcaster BFM TV.

Labor leaders said grievances among students, workers and other groups were converging, increasing pressure on the government to address concerns about wages, living costs and public services.

MACRON FACES PRESSURE

The renewed unrest comes as Macron approaches the end of his second presidential term, with France due to elect his successor next spring.

His administration faces growing pressure over living standards and public spending, with limited financial room to meet demands because of France’s strained public finances.

The protests have spread beyond the student movement that initially mobilized over education conditions, attracting workers, teachers and other groups concerned about living standards.

Police unions warned Sunday that personnel shortages could make it difficult to sustain the large security deployments used to contain the demonstrations.

The unrest has also coincided with demonstrations elsewhere in Europe, although their causes and intensity have varied considerably.

EUROPEAN PROTESTS

In Albania, demonstrators clashed with police in the capital, Tirana, during protests over government policies, education and corruption allegations.

Protesters demanding Prime Minister Edi Rama’s resignation confronted police, who used crowd-control measures to contain disturbances. The unrest continued into Sunday.

Italy also experienced a second weekend of unrest, with demonstrations and confrontations reported in several cities, including Rome, Milan, Turin and Florence.

In neighboring Belgium, demonstrators gathered in Brussels to protest government policies and demand improvements in public services and living standards.

Police used tear gas and pepper spray during confrontations with demonstrators, according to Reuters. The disturbances were considerably smaller than those reported in France.

SPANISH UNREST

Elsewhere in Europe, demonstrators marched largely peacefully in Madrid, Spain, to demand better pensions, while protesters in Lisbon, Portugal, called for more affordable housing.

However, Spanish authorities arrested 128 people in Barcelona following Saturday’s disturbances, when groups of protesters looted shops, erected barricades and set fires.

Portuguese police also cleared housing protest camps in Lisbon and Porto early Sunday, arresting 31 people. Protesters accused officers of excessive force, while authorities defended the operations as necessary to remove unauthorized encampments.

Although Saturday’s rallies in France were less destructive than the previous weekend, the latest arrests and calls for further action highlighted the ongoing political and social upheaval facing the country ahead of its presidential election.

Investigative journalists and researchers have raised concerns that radical-left and Islamist groups sought to hijack the genuine grievances driving the wider protest movement to advance their own political agendas.

POLITICAL ALLIANCES

At earlier rallies, protesters were photographed waving Palestinian flags alongside French national flags, reflecting the participation of pro-Palestinian activists in the wider protest movement.

French investigative journalist Nora Bussigny, writing in The Free Press, alleged that a coalition of Islamist, antifascist and radical environmentalist activists helped prepare and organize the October 17 demonstrations and sought to destabilize France’s democratic institutions.

Bussigny described the convergence of radical-left activists and political Islamists as a “red-green alliance.” Separately, Nathalie Szerman, a researcher with the Middle East Media Research Institute, said organized political Muslim groups had used the momentum of the original student protests to pursue their own objectives.

It remained unclear Sunday which, if any, Islamist groups participated in the latest disturbances.

The unrest has also intensified political debate over public security and immigration, issues raised by Marine Le Pen’s National Rally ahead of the presidential election.